Spiral Revolution!
by Axel yamamoto
Summary: In a decaying nation, under the leadership of demons in the guise of men, a place where the corrupted and evil run rampart. A shadow stalks the night, shrouded in darkness, a chaotic hero who decide to take the matter to his own hands. Whether he knew about it or not, he is the missing cog of the revolution, a hero in the guise of villain. This is the beginning of a revolution.
1. The Simple Meeting

**Hello everyone! Axel Yamamoto here with new story! Again! ... Goddamn it... Anyway, I've return from my long break as an author thanks to my college life, and somehow I manage to scrap by this story by the limited free time I had, so I hope you love this one!**

**If you have any question/suggestion, don't hesitate to review! Be warn that if this story didn't make out, I have to delete it... Since it'll free some burden from my shoulder.**

**Well, here you go! I hope you enjoy reading! Oh, and disclaimer! **

**I don't own nothing!**

"_A hero will never give up, never hide, never be defeated, never accept evil… It's a good thing I'm not one."_

_-Crimson Fox_

It was a dark and quite night,

Under the moonlight and shadow, a single figures run with haste, and yet almost no amount of sand could be heard, as he's but a night wind.

His dark hooded battered trench coat flutter under his speed. He moves from shadow to shadow, silently, unnoticeable as if he's but a whisper. He paused his pace as a pair of armed police walks by the alleyway, not noticing what may hidden in them.

After they passed by, the shadow continues his haste out of the alleyway and into the light. It is dangerous, but must be done. He quickened his haste under the light until he walks under the comforting shadow once more.

He then came to a stop as his target came into sight. A modern size home with beautiful gardens around it and a large sign 'Jewelry' attached above the door.

Under the shadow scans around the area, noticing several guardsmen around the perimeter. Four or so guys, not really a challenge for him. He touches the mask he's wearing under the hood, a crimson mask of a fox, grinning devilishly as if wanting to devour anything it sees. As long as he's wearing this, he will not fail.

To his luck, the guardsman that's guarding the place seems to be drunk from drinking some wine. That's what he really hates and thankful for the guardsmen here, they're idiots, the lot of them.

Spotting his chance, he dash from shadow to shadow until he reach the back of the house, where the guards seems to fail to guard. Walking to the door, he took out one of his 'Seven wonder of tools' from under his cloak and begins picking the lock.

"Come on… There." Hearing the magical 'clink' of an open door, he slowly opens it and walks inside the dark and quite place.

Just as he expected, the place was filled with lots of jewelries in display, from bracelets into a rough diamond, most of them are here. He grins under his crimson mask as he took out a large bag and begins to 'harvest' the jewelries. They're not really his objective, but it's a waste to let them be here.

After making sure it's clean, he silently walks upstairs and into the 'vault' where they store the gold's and his target. Just as he expected, the vault door is made of hard steel, and will be a pain in the ass to break without a proper tools and explosives.

But not for him.

"Hmm… Old model vault door, this will be easy." Walking to the door, he takes out his pick lock and begins picking it.

It took longer than the door, but he did it. The opening sound of the vault is like a music to his ear.

He swiftly enters it and begins to look around. Just as he expected, this person has lots of gold inside from his 'business'. His eyes then stop when he spotted his target, sitting beautifully on top of a pillar in the middle of the room. A crimson jewel, with the size of his palm, just _begging _to be taken.

He walks to it and grab it. Now that he has the target, he can do another 'harvesting' in this vault. After all, this gold is wasted on a noble stomach.

After all of the gold 'harvested' and his bag feeling full, he nodded his head in satisfaction and begins to makes his way out of the building with a happy mood.

Making sure to close the door, he walks out of the alleyway while humming a tone.

"W-Who's there?!"

He stopped and looks at the four guards that are looking at him with a not so friendly face. It seems that the thief has forgotten that there are four guards outside the shop, although drunk; they don't take too kindly to thiefs like him.

Remember kids; as a thief you must never forget where the guards are. Never.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"… Uhh… Fast food delivery?" Naruto curse his lack of imagination to say at this point.

"THIEF!"

That's his cue to run.

"Gentlemen! Can't we talk about all of this without violence!"

"Catch him!"

"I guess that's a no!"

Like bats from hell, the shadow quickly dash into the alleyway with the guardsmen closely behind, turning from alleyways to alleyways to confuse the pursuer. Of course, being chased by these fools aren't really a new thing for him, after all, this is just a daily life for the 'Crimson Fox', one of the most wanted in the capital city and THE KING OF ALL THIEVES!

"Get that thief!"

But first, he needs to get out of here.

Running through the darkness away from the guards, he could heard the commotion being spread out through the area, which means more guards are going to come and get him.

Well, shit.

Cutting sharply into an alleyway, he saw his salvation in several boxes conveniently stacks together. Wasting no time, he uses the boxes as climbing steps into the rooftop, just in time to evade a horde of guards running through his position.

His blue eyes then gaze upon the magnificent sight of the largest city in the land. He held his breath as he marvel upon the sight of the city lights under the moon and dark night, a sight only for those who walks upon the city under the darkness.

The sight of the Imperial City Capital.

He let out a single disappointed sight at a fact though, a fact that has haunted this land for so many years.

"How the mighty had fallen…"

**XXX**

The quite alleyway was disrupted when a single figure drop from the roof, his black form hunching on the ground for some air.

"Those guards are pretty persistent, I'll give them that." Fox said with a sighed, "Too bad they're on the wrong side of paycheck. Most of them, at least."

Walking through the dark alleyway, he came to a stop at a wooden door with a strange spiral symbol in the middle. Grabbing a key from his pocket, he inserts it in the keyhole and twist, unlocking the door.

"I'm back." He said as he walks inside, closing the door behind him.

The house he enters isn't exactly what you called 'fancy'. Most of the furniture's are made of wood, and some of them aren't looking to well. The floor and walls has cracks, and you could spots cobwebs in the corner of the room and at some furniture's.

There are some tables, chairs, a bookshelf, several beds and some crates. The room was lighted by the candles all around the room, quite dangerous, but doesn't really have any choice for light options.

"… We really need some decoration in this place."

"Welcome back." A lazy voice suddenly appears, greeting the new occupant in the room.

Fox shifted his gaze to a staircase leading to the basement in the corner of the room, spotting a male with a black hair shape into a pineapple style leaning on the wall, a lazy face clearly stated on his face.

"Yo, Shikamaru." Fox greeted as he walks to a nearby table and put down his bag. "Can't believe you're still awake."

Shikamaru Nara just shrugs off the thief statement. "You bring the target?"

"In the bag," Fox answered as he starts to take off his equipment's. "And I stole some extras on the way, so you might want to turn them into gold tomorrow."

"You don't say." Shikamaru walks toward the large bag in and open it, "… Well, at least you have the objective. I'll find us some buyers for the extras, so you don't have to worry about it."

Fox nods his head in satisfaction; most of his equipment's gone except for the mask. "Well, I have a long day tomorrow, so I'm going to hit the sack right away." He then took off his mask and leaves it at a nearby table, like any other of his equipment's.

What appeared beyond the mask is a face with a mysterious whiskers marks, a pair of bright blue eyes and a wild spiky blond hair with a grin as wild as the mask he wore.

He's Naruto Uzumaki,

The Master Thief.

**XXX**

"Oi brat! Two miso ramen!"

"One shrimp ramen please!"

"Give me a miso please! And a sake, if you would!"

Naruto whip his eyebrow of sweats, "Coming right up!" He yelled out loud as he put more noodles into the hot steaming water.

In a certain poor district of the empire, there stood a restaurant. Though it's more of a glorified 'Noodle Bar' than a restaurant, since it only serves noodles, some miso soup and booze, and even the place isn't that big.

However, this place is pretty well known by the local for having low cost, and yet delicious meals. It is one of the proud establishments of the district.

And this place is also the place where the so called 'Master Thief' works in the day.

One needs an image to keep your identity safe after all, and if you're Naruto kind of thieves, you'll need the job for living.

Naruto grabs the finished ramen and drop it at the counter. "Two miso ramen!" He declared, and the waitress quickly grabs the bowls to deliver it to the customer.

Yes, this is the busy day of working at the 'Ichikaru Ramen'.

An hour later, the rush hour had passed quite peacefully with customers all satisfied, leaving the establishment pretty empty and an exhausted ramen chef.

"Goddamn I hate rush hour…" Naruto declared while dropping his head to the counter for some rest.

"Hey! Rush hour is a blessing! Don't complaint!" The owner of the place, Teuchi Ichiraku, said. "Without it we'll be out of business long time ago."

"I know that… But it's still tiring…"

"Hey come now, you're not the only one tired here." The waitress, a pretty brunet girl, and the daughter of Teuchi, Ayame, said. "Being a waitress here is a tiring job, you know."

Naruto sighs, "… And for such a small and dingy place too."

"Oi."

Ayame giggles. "Yeah, if you look at it the first time this place doesn't really look all that worthwhile."

"… Even you, Ayame?"

"I'm still wondering why people go here for lunch…"

Teuchi couldn't take it anymore and went to sulks in the corner of the restaurant, while muttering about 'ungrateful daughter and employee'. And yet the two youths ignoring him in favor of a meaningless conversation about why people love going to this place.

Ignoring the fact that one of them is the daughter of the owner of said place, and the other an employee.

"Hey now, pity Teuchi you two." A new voice joined in as the owner walks inside the place. "He got poor heart; he'll die of sadness if you two keep it up."

The two in question looks at the newcomer with different expression. One fills with neutrality, the other annoyance.

"Ah, hello Hans." Ayame greeted as she bow her head to welcome him.

Hannes 'Hans' Ishiyama is a dirty blond haired man in his thirty, wearing the standard uniform of the imperial policemen. He nods at Ayame, then shift his gaze toward another youth in the vicinity, who looks away and let out a 'tch' instead of greeting him.

"Oi, Naruto, is that how you greet a customer and a friend?" He asks.

Naruto just let out an annoyed 'tch' once more, "I don't take a person who bailed out on me a friend or even a customer."

"Oh come on! It happened way in the past! Why are you so hung up on that?!"

"Way in the past my ass! It happened two days ago you bastard!" Naruto points his finger at the guard, "You invited me to a drink and bailed out on me! The bill I had to paid for our drinks aren't cheap you asshole!"

"It's just a few mugs!"

"Six mugs aren't few!"

"There was an emergency-"

"I don't believe you!"

"My wife was on labor!"

"That's the excuse you use on me last time!"

Before their petty fight turns into a full on brawl, Teuchi quickly intervene. "Alright that's enough you two. Naruto, back to the kitchen. And you, what will you be having?"

It seems that he had recovered from the shocked of the fact that his employee and daughter would insult his pride and joy restaurant. Also, from the look of Teuchi face, he's not taking a no for an answer.

And for anybody who knew Teuchi, making him angry is not a wise choice in life. Not at all.

The blond quickly dash to the kitchen and Hans sits at a nearby table, both of them are an experienced victims of Teuchi's wrath.

"Hmm… I'll have some seafood ramen and some sake, please."

"Coming right up!" Naruto then went to work.

"Sake this early?" Teuchi asks his old friend and customer, "You sure it's a good idea?"

"Yeah, the captain running us ragged thanks to last night…" Hans sighed, "I haven't had a good sleep…"

"Oh? What happened last night?" Ayame asks while cleaning a table.

"It's the 'Crimson Fox', he hit again." Hans responded with a sighs, "That bastard clean a whole jewelry store owned by a noble. You can just imagine the captain reaction at that fact. He sent a whole battalion to investigate, including me."

"But aren't you stationed here?" Ayame asks, "I mean, if even you aren't here, who going to guard the district?"

"After some persuasion, he sent me and two other to guard the district. By ourselves! Can you even believe that?! Three people guarding a whole district filled with thugs and god knows what!"

"This district isn't so bad." Naruto said from the kitchen. "… If you can ignore the constant crime, that is."

"Then what are you doing here?" Teuchi raised an eyebrow at the guardsman, "Won't getting drunk intervene with your patrol?"

Hans looks at Teuchi like he has grown another head, "Are you kidding me? It's my break time, and I'm getting drunk! I don't care!"

Everyone sweatdrop as Hans went on a rage fits of 'having his booze time cut' and other stuff. Naruto didn't really listen; it's too much of a trouble.

Despite being a drunken bastard and a guard, Hans is a pretty decent guy, if you can ignore his drunken stupor. He and few others was the only one brave enough to take on patrol in the poor district, voluntary with no pushes what so ever.

When you ask why, he would just said 'Why not?' and go back to whatever he's doing. Decent guy he is, at least until he gets drunk and begin doing something idiotic.

"Here's your sake." Teuchi serves a bottle of sake to his friend.

"Only one?"

"It's too early for more."

"Oh come on Teuchi! Give more to your old buddy!"

"No."

Naruto sweatdrop again when he sees Hans spouting accruement against Teuchi of 'ruining his happy time' and other stuff, with only a shake of the head as a respond from the accused.

The blond just shake his head as Hans tries to challenge Teuchi with a duel, with the old owner just shrug off easily. But then he smile faintly, although not as exciting as his night job, he likes his day life, filled with friends and no guard trying to kill him.

It is a time where Naruto Uzumaki could enjoy himself in peace.

**XXX**

The noon has reached its peak in time, and Naruto Uzumaki said his farewell to the father and daughter duo.

Walking in noon time is not that different of walking in morning time in the poor district, as the people, still energize, and continue on their daily life of selling, buying or doing something else. It is like the poor has a different kind of energy than other kind of people.

Unlike the other district, with the exception of red light district, the poor has unlimited energy for some reason. This is one of the reason Naruto likes this district so much, ignoring the pretty high rate of crime here, of course.

Another reason was because this place the girls wears a somewhat of a revealing clothing's, something the blond doesn't mind one bit.

"Ara, if isn't it Naruto, working hard?" A kind, elderly voice greeted his ears.

"Oh, hey grandma! Good evening." Naruto respond as he came to a stop and look at the old lady that greeted him, sitting behind a stand with lots of fruits. "Just finish working at Ichiraku."

The old lady nodded her head, and then she grab a single fruit from her stand and threw it at the blond, who catch it with ease.

"Eh? This is…"

"Please take it. It's for your hard work."

"B-but I couldn't-"

"It is fine." The old lady reassures. "Watching you working hard remind me of my grandchild." Then she smiles sadly, but then shook her head. "Please take it."

The blond stares at the red fruit in his hand, before he sighs and shook his head. "Alright then, I'm off!"

"Keep it up!"

Naruto then continues on his journey home, while munching on the fruit. The people here depend on each other most of the time, so they usually knew each other.

"Yo brat, going home?"

"Hey lets go and have drink again, boya!"

"Keep up the good work, Naruto!"

He's also famous, since the people here usually knew about the blond boy who made killer ramen in Ichiraku.

This is why he likes this place.

He turns to an alleyway at some point, humming a random tune with no care of the world. He stops at a wooden door at some point, fishing out a key, he opens the door.

"I'm baaacckk!" Naruto declared his arrival.

The only sight that welcomed him was the sight of Shikamaru hulking form. "… Welcome back…" Shikamaru respond while resting his head on a table.

The blond raised an eyebrow at his friend, "What's with you?"

Shikamaru didn't answer and just pick a piece of paper on the table, and handed it to Naruto.

Raising an eyebrow, the blond reads the content of the paper.

"… Letter from the guild?" He asks outloud.

Shikamaru forces himself to sit up, "Yeah, apparently your action last night caused quite an uproar, and as the result the usual thieves can't really moves in peace with the dozen or so guards in most district." Except the poor one, but that beside the point.

"Bah." Naruto threw the paper away. "What do I care about the thief's guild?"

"Well, for one we accept requests from them, and sell our loots to them as well." Shikamaru reminded, "It's wise to keep them in our favor."

"Huh. Since when did you become the dog of the guild, Shikamaru? That's Kiba's job." Naruto walks and sat down at the battered bed in the place. "Where's Kiba by the way? And Chouji?"

"I've sent them on an errand. They'll be back tonight if it went well." Shikamaru answered, "Also, I'm not anyone's dog. I'm just saying."

"Yeah yeah." The blond wave it off and lie down on the bed. "Wake me if something important came up."

Shikamaru sighs once more and mutter 'troublesome' under his breath. "… Oi, I actually have a job for you."

Now that gained the blond interest. "What kind of job?"

"You know about the disappearance cases that have been happening in the market district lately?" Naruto nods his head, "Well, my source told me that a certain noble is responsible."

"Explain."

"There's a noble household at the market district, very rich. I heard that some people saw many of the people that disappeared were taken by one of the noble family members. And yet when reported to the guards, the info would just be shrug it off as just a mere 'rumor'." Shikamaru stares at the blond thief, "You know what that means, right?"

"… A pay off."

"Yup."

"So… what about the job?"

"I was getting to that." Shikamaru clear his throats. "The noble manage to payoff the guards because of their constant 'gifts' to the Prime Minister, and this gifts came in the form of gold or jewelries. "

"Hoooe…"

"Most of the noble family income came from a mine in the northern mountain." Shikamaru informs, "So, maybe, if the deeds of the mine were to disappear somehow…"

Naruto might not be the smartest of the bunch, but even he could get the point. "… Okay, I accept the job."

Nodding, Shikamaru stood up from the chair. "Then I'll get the preparation ready. You just be ready for tonight."

The thief laugh at that, "Shikamaru, who do you think you're talking to?" He grin, as wild as the mask he wore as a thief.

"I am Naruto Uzumaki! The Crimson Fox! The king of all thieves!" He declared while pointing to the sky-emr, roof. "I'm always ready!"

"Yeah, yeah, just be ready." With that, Shikamaru walks out of the room, leaving a stun Naruto.

"…"

**XXX**

At top of a bulding, Crimson Fox, in all of his glory, stares at the mansion of his target. His black trench coat flutters by the night wind.

He has heard about all of the security of the noble from Shikamaru. It seems that the noble hires several war veterans for security, thus the numbers of them aren't that many. To make thing easier, the place is surrounded by a small forest, and that's a large handicap for him.

This will be an easy job.

**XXX**

This will be an easy job.

At least, that's what Naruto think about a minute ago.

It was supposed to be a smooth one. Shikamaru had told him all the information he could gathered about the place security and other stuff. With his skill, it's a walk in the park.

And so he infiltrated the place with ease, since the security is pretty weak for a noble house. Their trust in their guards must be quite large.

However, what he didn't expect was to feel killing intents to wash over the place while walking in the dark corridor of the mansion.

He also didn't expect meeting a pretty violate hair girl. Now, if she's a maid or a servant or something, he might take his time and flirt with her. However, the giant scissor, blood on herself and dismembered body near her told him otherwise.

Just his luck, really.

The girl seems to notice the present of a mask wearing black hooded figure that seems to stood there for a minute because of his train of thought and initial shock.

"Ara? Are you one of the guards?" She asks with an innocent tone, "Akame never said that the guard will be wearing mask."

Shit. He better get out of here, and quick.

"Of course not! Please don't group me in with those guards! I'm just… ahh… You know, passerby?"

"Really?" Although she didn't do anything, her scissor seems to gleam under the moon, making it more intimidating than it is.

Naruto eye twitch at that, "Yeah… Oh! Look over there!" He points out at one of the window.

For some reason, the girl fell for it. "Nani?"

Using this chance, Naruto grabs one of his 'seven wonders of tools', a tube shape device, pulling the pin, he threw it on the ground.

**Booof**

White smoke screen quickly covers the hallway, and in the confusion the blond quickly use the window as a quick exit and ran as fast as he can into the jungle.

He knew who she is. Or at least, has a slight idea who she is. He has heard a rumor about a certain group of assassins that runs around and starts killing corrupted people in cold blood. Now, he doesn't really mind seeing those people dead, but being dead himself isn't really that much of a likable concept.

"_God damn it! Just my luck meeting a dangerous pretty assassin in one of my job!" _

His instinct kicked in and he duck just in time as a kick sailed passed his head. _"Holy shit!"_

"Wow, nice dodge there." The kicker said with an amused tone. "I can tell you're better than those guards. This is going to be fun!"

Now, Naruto doesn't know whether he should curse his luck, or thank it. For his attacker this time is a bombshell of a sexy blond lady, with 'BIG BOOBZ', and revealing clothes that covers only her 'woman' parts. There's also some beasty element to her, which make her much more appealing.

"…. GODDAMN IT!" The thief cry out to the sky, "WHY?! WHY EVERYTIME I MEET A BEAUTIFUL GIRL SHE ALWAYS TRY TO KILL ME?!"

The attacker looks at the thief in shock at his outburst. "… You okay dude?"

After another sob, the blond nodded his head. He fish out a familiar tube out of his coat, pulling the pin, and toss it to the girl.

**BOOF**

"What the-?!"

Using the smokescreen as cover, Naruto dashes away from the blond woman to anywhere but there.

"The day I found beautiful women in one day, I ran away from them." Naruto grumbles in his haste. "My ancestor going to kick my ass when I'm dead."

Charging through a large bush, the blond finally arrive on a clearing.

Which has the sight of a beautiful black hair young woman stabbing a brown hair young man through the heart with a sword.

"…. What is it with my luck tonight?!"

He now encounters three beautiful girls, and every one of them are ready to kill. He's running out of smoke bomb here! And his ancestor will really kill him!

His outburst seems to attract all of the occupants, even the stabbed boy. He seems to be alive for some reason though. Oh, and there's another girl here, this one wearing a fancy looking pajamas, and she just scream 'noble' even from here.

Just realizing that all eyes on him right now, the thief rub the back of his neck.

"Ahh… Don't mind me please. Just continue what you guys are doing, okay? I'm just passing by here and-"His instinct kicked in again and he quickly raises his hands just in time to block a kick. A HARD kick.

He grunt as the kick managed to pushes him several feet's. Damn, her kick hurt like hell.

"Nice block there." The blond haired woman from before said with a smirk, "You know, leaving a lady in the middle of the night isn't nice."

"A lady that can kick a guy and pushed him a few feet? I don't think so." Naruto counter quickly. "So can I just, you know, go away from here? Without being attack by you beautiful girls? Plea-"

"I know you!" The brown haired young man interrupted while pointing at the thief, "You're Crimson Fox! That well known thief!" He saw the thief wanted poster next to the Night Raid this morning.

The thief looks at the boy for several second, before he nodded his head sagely. "Kid, you'll go far in life."

"Crimson Fox…?" The blond haired bombshell muttered. "…. Ah! That petty thief the guards wanted so badly!"

"Who are you calling a petty thief!?"

The black hair one seems to hum in thought. "… There's a famous thief called Crimson Fox?"

Naruto let out a 'ugh' as he seems to be stabs by invincible swords right through the chest.

"I'm surprised myself." The blond girl said, "I thought he'll be more impressive though. With more red clothing."

Usually, after being stabs by such insult he'll go depressed and shift into a fatal position on the ground. However, Naruto survival instinct keeps him from doing just that, since he knew who the people he's dealing with are.

He's in no mood for fighting right now, especially for his life.

Grabbing one of his 'Seven Wonder of Tools', he quickly fish it out and pull the pin.

"Not so fast!" The blond said quickly as she dash toward the thief with a very high speed.

But that's what Naruto wanted her to do.

With a smirk under the mask, he let the grenade go.

And a blinding flash fill the area.

"Gah!?"

"Ugh?!"

"Ahk! My eyes!"

Like a great escape artist, he uses the temporary distraction and moves away from the area, heading back to the forest that surrounded the place, waterfall tears slowly poured down from his eyes.

He felt ashamed of himself, for escaping from beautiful girls like that. And he could just see his ancestor cracking their knuckles, just waiting for him to die to kick his ass.

As he dahs through the darkness of the forest, he didn't know, that the wheel of fate…

Is slowly turning its wheels.

**XXX**

"God damn it that bastard! I'll kill him!"

Akame, the black hair assassin, stares at her fellow assassin as she went on a rampage about a certain thief that had managed to escape them through trickery.

After the eventful night, the group of assassins decided to called it a night after the brown hair young man, Tatsumi, killed their last target. And so, they went back to their hideout (With an extra baggage named Tatsumi), and begins to discuss/review tonight operation, with all the members present except with their new 'guest', who is fast asleep.

"Haha, calm down, Leone." The second level headed one of the group, Bulat, reassure with a laugh. "He's a thief; he trained himself to be an escape artist, if what I heard is true."

Of course, what surprising was not because the thief escaped them, but the fact that Lubbock, who had created strings barrier around the place, and Mine, who was keeping an eye from the high ground, can't seems to spot anything escaping the area.

So either the thief hide around the area until they leave, or he actually went passed Lubbock strings or Mine's eyes, which is a very difficult thing to do.

"You heard about him, Bulat?" Akame inquired, this thief interests her slightly.

"Yeah, the 'Crimson Fox', a wanted by the Imperial Police with a high bounty on his head." Bulat informed, "From what I heard, this thief isn't just you ordinary thieves. He stole things only from the rich and the noble, and never once being capture by the guards."

Now that gained the attention of all the assassins I the meeting room.

"Only the rich and noble…?" Akame asks while thinking.

A thought of thieves hunting the rich and noble homes isn't really that uncommon. However, a thief that _only_ targets the home of the rich and noble and not being captured by the guards is quite rare. Heck, this is the first time she heard of it.

This requires further investigation.

"So what? I don't care even if he's some master thief; I'm going to kick his ass if I meet him again!" Leona, the ever battle monger she is, declared to the rest of the assassins.

They all sweatdrop as they sees Leona laughing like a villain while saying what she'll do to the thief once she find him. It involve a lots of pummeling, haymakers and round house kicks.

All except Sheele, who seems to be half asleep already.

Night Raid is just that kind of group, a bunch of powerful weirdoes banded together.

**XXX**

Living as a poor in the capital is a very tiring thing.

With the empire high taxes and lack of income on her part, keeping her family fed is a very hard thing to do.

The brown haired woman sighs tiredly as she sit down on a chair, her eyes stares at a picture of a man. How she wish her husband still live, and how she hated the empire for executing him for saying the truth about the noble.

She sighs, and would've turned in for the night if not for the knock on her door. Curious but wary, she slowly walks toward the door and slowly opens it.

The quite night and its cold wind greeted her. She blinks as she opens the door a bit wider, only to hear a 'clink' as her door hit something.

She looks to the ground and saw a black pouch, with a small red letter beside it. Warily picks them up and inspect the red card.

The red card was blank, with only a single picture of a small fox smiling at her.

She blink, she heard about this, about a person who would give away gold to poor people, while only leaving a single, red card beside the pouch of gold.

The woman quickly opens the pouch to investigate, and seeing the gold inside really made her day. Slowly, tears begin to pour out as she hug the pouch and card while muttering 'thank you, thank you' several time.

What the housewife didn't know, was that above a nearby building, a black silhouette is watching with a smile. Seeing the people he helps smiles like that really made all of this worthwhile.

With one final look, Naruto Uzumaki departed the scene to gives away the rest of the loot. The job of the Crimson Fox isn't finish yet.

"A hero will never give up, never hide, never be defeated, and never accept evil…" Naruto whispers as he stares at the dark sky, feeling the irony of trying to do good things while doing something evil. Thievery, that is. "… It's a good thing I'm not one."

Yes, he's not a hero.

He's a thief. A damn good one.

**To be continued.**

**There you go, chapter one! Please review since it is the food to my pathetic ego!**


	2. And so it begins

**Axel: Hey fellas, sorry to keep you waiting for this. I know you're all mad at me for not updating anything for the last… Forever! Man, college life is not as easy as it sound, I've been piled up with assignment that every time I want to write something, it just went past me!**

**Now, I appreciate it, really I do, that some of you become my readers despite my bad grammar. You have no idea what you guys meant to me. Now, this chapter marks the end of my hiatus, and my return as an author as I will try to update the rest of my stories, especialy the popular one. **

***IMPORTANT NOTE***

**Also, to make thing worse****, it seems my government decided to put a 'Internet Positive' on Fanfiction, which make it inaccessible****. It's made for blocking sites like Porn sites, which is nice and all, but for some reason they also blocked Fanfiction, and I'm not kidding. I somehow manage to went passed it with a trick, but it's annoying as hell.**

**Anyway, this chapter had been made a bit rushed since I felt so happy that some of my assignment had been done and I have some free time. I'm sorry for any error I made, and I thank you all for reading the story of this humble author.**

**Naruto: What kind of humble author called himself humble?**

**Axel: Shuddup! And aren't you supposed to be in the story?! Get out of here!**

**XXX**

"_Nothing is cooler and more attractive than a big comeback, and that'll be me."_

_Steven Adler_

Shikamaru Nara is not in a good mood today.

But since he's been in this stressful job for quite some time now, having a bad mood is like a pre-required thing you must have.

Last night mission had gone haywire, with Naruto coming back without his objective in hand. But what made it worse was that the blond had encountered not one, but _three 'Hot'_ assassins as Naruto put it, from the infamous group of killers, Night Raid.

Usually, a killer would hunt down the 'witness' of their crime until there's none left. Usually. But Naruto wore a mask, and he's a master when it comes sneaky stuff, but just in case he had told him to 'lay low' for now, just in case.

You could just imagine his expression when he was told to stay home for the day.

To make thing even worse, his source had told him that Night Raid had a large spy network under the Capital City. He hasn't know how large yet, but from the looks of thing it's larger than his.

Though it is to be expected, after all Night Raid are under the Revolutionist Army command, which has quite the resources, perhaps even more than the Empire itself.

The pineapple head just sighs at the troublesome thoughts and walks through the street grumbling. For some odd reason he isn't exactly surprised very much when Naruto encountered Night Raid, considering his weird Luck. Especially with girls.

And now, with Naruto told to stay home, probably escaped somewhere already, he's in charge of going shopping. The blond had wasted almost all their smoke bombs and limited flash, they must restock somehow.

So here he is, walking through the crowd heading toward his destination. Just like in every city, no one bats an eye at him; he's just an ordinary unimportant civilian after all.

Slowly but surely, the crowds diminished, and two minutes later, the black hair male is now walking at an almost empty street, with a person or two sometime passes by.

Cutting through a corner and into an alleyway, he came to a stop at a wooden door with a sign 'General Goods Store' hanging above it. The place itself looks dingy and worn out, as if showing the age of the building. Staring at it for several second, Shikamaru sighs and walks inside the store.

The doorbell jingle as he enters, and what greeted him is a large collection of goods ranging from herbs to even weapons hanging on the wall. There are even weird unknown things on a cupboard on the wall, like a jar fill with green goob with eyes floating inside and the like that will not be describe for safety reason.

The place is dusty, with cobwebs here and there near the corners of the store. Some old posters that aren't readable anymore sticking on the wall, like it's their absolute fate to be there.

Before Shikamaru can do anything else, a loud footstep was heard and the backdoor of the place open loudly.

"Welcome to my store! My name is Hanji and I'm the-"The owner, a brown hair woman wearing a pair of glasses, stop mid-sentence as she saw who had come in, "Shikamaru-kun! It's you!"

"Good afternoon, Hanji-san." Shikamaru responded.

Hanji Ackerman, the store owner of this humble abode. She and her husband run this place for several years already, though she may not look or act like it at the moment, she's a mad inventor creating whatever is inside her head, ranging from weapons or something outrageous, like sexy lingerie. But that's for another topic.

"It's been awhile! Come in!"

"I'm already inside."

Hanji just laugh at that jabs, "So what can I help you with? And where's that energetic friend of yours?"

"Just some of the usual please." He handed the store owner a piece of paper containing all he needed. "Naruto's staying at home right now after some… accident." Probably escaped somewhere by now, knowing him. "So I'm the one in charge of shopping."

"Oh my? I hope he's fine." Hanji said as she enters the backroom of the store to get the requests items, "What happened?" Her voice still heard from the back.

"Nothing too serious, just an accident at work." The pineapple hair answered while browsing the store wares. Though nothing much changes and he had seen it multiple times, the weird and unique things here always fascinate him.

"Hee… Don't tell me it's some accident with girls?"

"… More or less." Well, it involves a group of _female_ assassins, but she didn't need to know the details.

Her chuckles could be heard, "Figures, his luck with girls couldn't be weirder." That statement is what Shikamaru could agree on any days, any age.

Hanji returns two minutes later carrying a large skin bag containing the things Shikamaru ordered. "Here you go. Oh, and I added some extras in there, so don't spend it all on one place, hm?"

Shikamaru just shook his head, "You say that to Naruto, he's the one using these the most. I'll pay with the usual way so-"

"Wait! Shikamaru-kun!" Hanji stopped the retreating male from moving. "There's something I want to show you."

Running to the back, she emerges carrying a large and long thing that's covered by a piece of cloth. From the looks of thing, it looks like a weapon.

"This, is my recent invention. Took quite a while to finished, but there's nothing impossible for me!" Hanji said with no little pride in her voice as she put the invention to the store table and uncover it. "But it'll be a waste to sell it to Imperial don't you think? I mean, those guys can't even shot a red fat bird that fly like… Like a turtle."

Shikamaru's eyes widened as he stares at the invention uncovered in front of him. "This is…"

Hanji smiles, "Shikamaru-kun, let me introduce you-" She presented the masterpiece she created.

"-This, is the **Agony Crossbow**."

Shikamaru stares at the large and heavy looking crossbow at the table. Just from the appearance of the ranged weapon one could already deduced that it is a heavy crossbow.

"A heavy crossbow?"

"What? No no, I prefer the term… 'Custom' Heavy Crossbow." Hanji corrected with gleams in her eyes, "AKA, Agony Crossbow!"

"Why Agony…?"

Hanji seems to be taken aback. "What do you mean, why?! Can't you see from the looks of this weapon that it'll cause massive agony on the target?" She made her point by taking out a large bolt from… somewhere, "Just take a look at this!"

Shikamaru just shook his head at the futility of debating with the mad scientist. "… You do know that I'm not much fan of a heavy crossbow, right? And knowing you people it'll cause quite the fortune."

"What?! We would never!" She seems to take slight offense to that.

Shikamaru just stares at her for several seconds, before sighing. "What made you think I want this thing, anyway? Isn't it more efficient to buy a rifle or something these days?"

"What?! That fire stick has no art at all! No challenge in using them!"

"Well that 'fire stick' is a standard weapon for range in the Capital Guardsmen."

Hanji let out a tch while muttering about 'a weapon with no beauty' and 'cheap materials'. "Fine, I'll show you why my creation is so much better than that automatic fire stick that those tin men uses." She picks up the crossbow with a faint grunt, then she draw the string as she put the bolt on the weapon, then she aim.

"Take a look at this, Shikamaru-kun." She saids as a sadistic smiles and weird gleams slowly appears on her face, "This, is the fruit of my creation."

Then she fire.

Shikamaru eyes widened when he felt the wind from the crossbow fire as the bolt launch itself past the wall Hanji targeted, piercing to the next room with ease. He could see the small hole on the wall.

"Hanji-san…"

"Hm~? What is it, Shikamaru-kun?" Hanji asks with a haughty voice, not hiding the fact that she's went beyond proud of the result.

"… You do know that you just made a hole on the wall, right? Wont your husband gets angry?"

The inventor eyes widened at the fact, "Oh shit!"

**XXX**

"I'm so booorreedd!"

A one very bored Naruto Uzumaki cry out to the world, earning a few odd looks from the people around him. Though, those who actually knew him just shook his head and continue what they're doing. It's just Naruto being Naruto, after all.

Just like Shikamaru had predicted, the blond had escaped from his home, completely ignoring Shikamaru advice to stay at home for the sake of 'just in case' situation. Of course, just in case situation isn't really inside Naruto's book.

Beside, all he can do inside that house is reading some old books that Shikamaru bought, play chest against that guy that will result in his absolute lost (Even with handicap), staring at the ceiling and tries to counts the numbers of cracks there, or sleeping. All of them aren't really that favorable right now.

But never mind that, the problem right now is that a bored Naruto is a 'troublesome' Naruto, as Shikamaru would've put it. So the people that knew him also stir clear of him, as they don't want to get involve in Naruto ways of healing his… boredom.

Usually it involves lots of destruction, chases and pissed off guardsmen.

And so Naruto walks through the street grumbling of what to do for the day. It was his day off at the work, after all, so he's bored as hell and didn't know what to do.

Except pulling pranks on the guards, but that'll be plan B for now.

"Oi Naruto, the heck you doing?"

Responding to the called, the blond turns around and sees a brown hair young man, wearing a grey jacket and brown shorts, with a fang tattoos in each of his cheeks, staring at him. In each of his hands are plastic bags, each filled with groceries.

"Oh, Kiba it's you. No wonder it smells like a wet dog around here."

"You bastard! What kind of guy that insulted his friend as a greeting!"

"Nah, I only did it for you, since, you know, you're a good friend." The blond said while averting his eyes from the brown hair young man.

Kiba Inuzuka was not amused one bit. "That makes it worse! And you're bad at lying damn it!"

Before Naruto could retort at that and make the Inuzuka more pissed, he spotted a white ball of fur from the corner of his eyes and he knew exactly what it was. "Akamaru!"

The little puppy known as Akamaru bark and run toward the blond, stopping right in front of him with its tail waggling. Naruto crouch down and begins to pamper the little puppy.

"Who's the good boy? Who is it? Yes you are! What a good boy!" Naruto coed the little puppy as the animal bark in happiness at the pampering the blond are giving, "You're a good boy, right? Not ugly like your master. Yes you are!"

"Oi. Did you just insult the dog owner while he's within ear range?"

"Who's the goo-"

"Listen to me damn it!"

After like two more minutes of pampering, the blond finally stop and notices the white plastic bags in his friend hands.

"What's those for?"

"Hm? This? Chouji asked me to buy something." Kiba answered when he noticed where Naruto's staring. "Damn lazy glutton can't even walk to the store himself…"

Naruto chuckles at that, "Well, maybe his body fat had finally affected his legs or something."

"Better not let him hears you, he'll pulverize you." Then Kiba added, "Literally."

Naruto nodded his head while shivering slightly at the memory of Chouji's 'pulverizing' technique when the blond accidentally let lose the forbidden 'fat' words around him. If wasn't for the fact he had felt it first hand, he wouldn't believe someone like him could do that.

Speaking of Chouji, he hasn't been at his fa-Umm… Big bone friend place for quite a while. "You know what, Kiba? I think I'm going to accompany you." He said as if being accompanied by him is a blessing or something.

Kiba raised an eyebrow, "… You're that bored? Don't you have anything better to do? Like, playing chest with Shikamaru or something?"

Naruto's answer came in the form of a look that clearly said 'You kidding me, right?'.

"…. Nevermind."

"Good, so now, let's go!"

"Huh-? Hey wait damn it! I can't sprint while carrying this!"

**XXX**

The Red Light District,

A place within the capital for lonely men and even married one to seek pleasure of all kind, event he bodily pleasure of sexual interaction. One could find all kind of establishment lining up in the district offering all kind of different pleasure, for those who can afford it, of course.

Among the fine establishment, stand a Bar called 'The Butterfly', though just calling it a 'bar' is a bit of an insult to the fine establishment. The place is also a 'hostess' bar that also provides special kind of 'services'. We shall leave that to the reader's imagination.

The place itself is a two story building with large space, which was filled mostly with tables for customers that wants to hang around the place, perhaps accompany by the fine females the place provide. In the middle of the room is a bar, fill with all kind of drinks from alcohols to non-alcohols, serves by train bartender to fill your drinking needs.

The place is clean too, which make it much better than your average hostess clubs or bars.

And this place is Kiba's and Naruto's destination.

As he steps inside the establishment, Naruto smiles at the familiar place greeted his sight. The door bouncer, a large bald guy, quickly recognizing who he is, nodded his head to the blond in greeting, which he returns. He also waves back toward some of the hostess who greeted him, some of them even blow him a kiss, which he return with a shook of his head.

"Damn it Naruto!" Kiba said as he finally catches up to the blond, panting as he tries to catch up his breathing. "I told you to wait!"

"Man Kiba, you've become so slow now."

"I'm carrying bags of groceries damn it!"

"Bah, excuses, excuses." Naruto said as he shrugs the brown hair male excuses and walks toward the middle of the room.

Kiba just growl and heads toward the back of the room, nodding his head to the bouncer first, of course.

Sitting down on the bar, he was greeted by a bartender who seems to be cleaning a cup. Though why every time he came here he always sees the bartender wiping a cup or two, he never knows. Maybe it's a bartender tradition or something?

"Can I help you with something, dear customer?" The bartender asks.

"Some cold ginger milk, please."

The bartender paused, "Uhm… Ginger Milk?"

"Yup."

Before the bartender could say anything else, another figure came into view carrying a large mug a quarter filled with golden liquid. He put the mug in front of the blond and pours a white liquid to the mug, filling it to the bream. Its milk of course, so please gets your head out of the gutter.

"It's been awhile, Naruto." The figure said as he shush the bartender who bows his head and go to other customer needed his service. "And please don't weird out my new employee like that; they tend to have stresses dealing with customer like you."

"Oi, what do you mean by that, Chouji?"

Chouji only shook his head, "So what brings you here today?"

"Oh you know," The blond thief took a sip at his drink, "Haven't been to my friends place in a while, so decided to visit."

"… You're that bored?"

"… How do people keep knowing that?"

"It written on your face and you suck at lying." Chouji said nonchalantly, "So what happened? Shikamaru ban you for going out again or something?"

"Yeah. That worrywart said I shouldn't come out yet in case of Night Raid hunting me down or something." Naruto answered while looking around the place. It still impress him that his friend managed to secured a place like this. It was like yesterday the four of them are-

"Oh yeah, heard about it from Shikamaru." Chouji grab an empty cup and started to wipe them clean like all the other bartenders. "Bad luck for you meeting them like that."

"Yeah…" Then his blue eyes stop at a certain spot in the club, "Who's that midget guy?"

Rising an eyebrow, Chouji look at where the blond is staring, a midget man with white hair wearing a black suits, who's laughing with several girls on his side. "Oh him. He's Gato, from the Gato Trading Corporation that handle trades for the capital, quite a legitimate business." Then he added, "… If you don't count murdering, black mailing people and bribing the guard's crimes, of course."

Naruto let out a 'tch', "Is it too much of a hope to find a benevolent successful merchant in this hell hole of a city?"

"There are, but you won't find many in this city." Chouji answered, "Also, that remind me. Naruto, come with me to the back."

"What?" Naruto turns his head to see Chouji walks out of the bar and heads into the back door, "Oi! I said wait!" Gulping down what remained of the ginger milk; Naruto quickly went after his friend in haste and interest of what it might be.

Hell, it might be a mission or something!

With that happy thought in mind, the thief walks toward the back, with the exterior of the bar slowly replaced by the wooden and slightly darker place. Long hallways with doors going god knows where filled his vision, with staff's walks here and there doing what they're doing.

Following Chouji to one of the farthest room, a wooden door with the sign 'Boss' hanging in front of it, the owner grip the handle and open the door, entering with the blond not far behind.

The room was not too big, nor was it too small. But it is big enough to house a wooden desk with a boss-like chair behind it, a pool table, a mini-kitchen, and several sofas around. There are several decorations also accompanying the place, like a tiger rug and bear head attached to the wall.

"Take a seat." Chouji said as he walks toward his desk, sitting down and grabbing several files.

Rising an eyebrow, he took a seat on the sofas directly in front of Chouji's desk. "So what's up?" The blond asks while helping himself on the bowl filled with candies on the coffee table in front of him.

Chouji hums for several seconds as he reads the files in his hand, then he threw one of them to the blond, "Read it."

Grabbing the file, Naruto begins to reads whatever contained inside the damned paper. After mumbling for several seconds, the blond eyes begin to rise. "… This is…"

"It's a report on a new drug that's been circulating in the Red Light District." Chouji's explains, "They called it 'Smoker' or something. Like the name, it's a smoke drug that has high illusion properties."

"Like that mushroom thing?"

"Yeah, but much worse." Chouji continues, "The drug had a very potent addictive element, and a very fatal side effect. Once you've been hooked, you won't be able to get out easily, and the side effect will make you lose any kind of sanity left in you but getting more drugs."

"Is it that bad?"

"Yeah."

Dropping the file, Naruto looks at Chouji, "So what do you want me to do?"

Leaning back to the chair, Chouji answers, "You know I hated drugs more than anything. Though I run business in the Red Light District and some of our methods aren't that legal, we never, ever deal in drugs. It's a poison that can turn nations and it's populace to the brink of extinction."

"My source told me that Gato Shipping Corporation may perhaps be the one that smuggles in these drugs. So I want you to infiltrate the Corporation HQ, enter his office and perhaps find any written contract or something inside a safe."

Naruto let out a hum, "But will there be even a written contract? I mean, it's an illegal stuff, even for this accursed city."

"I'm sure there'll be one. Bastards like him just love their written contract." Chouji then added, "If you can't find one, then I'm sure you can find something else there… Like some coins or something similar."

"… And what make you think the old dude even keep all his fortune and contracts in the safe inside his office? I mean, isn't that a bit cliché and simple?"

"The guy keeps bragging about it when he's drunk here."

"…"

"…"

"… You got a deal."

**XXX**

It was night time when Naruto return to his 'hovel'. And just like he predicted, Shikamaru was there, reading some papers about something while grumbling to himself.

"I'm home~" Naruto announced his present.

"Welcome back." Shikamaru responded, "I should've known you'll leave anyway." He commented.

The blond grin sheepishly, "Shishishi, sorry about that, Shikamaru. I'm just bored, you know?"

Shikamaru just grunted in acknowledgement of the blond reasoning. Working with him for a while, he just isn't surprise anymore if the blond just put himself in danger for stupid reason like that.

"Hey Shikamaru, I think I got ourself some jobs." Naruto fish out a piece of paper from Chouji and gave it to the pineapple head, "Here, read it."

Pausing whatever he was doing, the black hair male grab the piece of paper and begins to scan the content, "Is this from Chouji?"

"Yeah," The blond responded while taking a seat at a nearby chair. "He wanted us to do some job for him. Kinda interesting too, so I thought we should give it a go."

Shikamaru didn't respond to that but solely focused on the paper, "This is… Infiltrating the Gatou Corporation?" The pineapple head looks at the blond, "Isn't that a bit too risky?"

"Since when did we take words like 'Risky' on our books, hm?" Naruto said with a grin, "Nothing impossible for the Crimson Fox, after all. He can steal anything!"

"And yet, he cannot steal a girl's heart." Shikamaru casualy said while staring at his friend with a lazy stare.

A simple sentence, and yet Naruto felt like he was pierced by thousands of arrows and blades through the heart. "Ugh… Low blow, Shikamaru… Low blow…" Naruto whispers while holding his wounded heart. No matter how much he wants to deny it, it's the truth. It was like something out there destined him with zero skill with girls.

Naruto reputation with girls actually quite well known to people that knows him, with his luck almost hitting the marks zero. For some reason, whenever he wants to go near a girl, something bad happened that made the girl lose interest. Hell, only Ayame, who pitied the blond, would go on a date with him, though the blond shook his head with a sad 'no' when she volunteer, his pride demanding it.

There's also his dense personality that made him blind with females feeling, but like hell he told him that.

Shikamaru sweat drop when Naruto goes depress as he crouch down to the floor, a black cloud hanging above his head.

He sighs, slightly regretting jabbing at the blond like that. "Alright already, just give me two days."

Quickly recovered from his wounded pride, Naruto gives his friend thumbs up, "Now that's what I'm talking about! Dattebayo!"

Shikamaru waves his friends off, "Yeah, yeah, it's not like I can't say no if you already made up your mind. After all, the Crimson Fox can't moves without its shadow lurking."

**XXX**

_It was a cold place, and she could just feel the dread and fear inside the place. But her eyes stare at the sight she hated, perhaps not only her, but all the other inside the place._

_They were all seated in a stadium like seats, circulating the main arena down below. All of them had good views of what was happening down there, and all she could do was to tighten her grip on her companion._

_Down below in the arena, stood six combatants, their short stature marks them as just kids. All of them wear the same cloak that '__**They'**__ gave it to you when you become one of them. _

_Out of six, five of them held weapons of all kind, sticks, staffs, knuckles and even a dagger. While the sixth person, who is the only one standing in the opposite of them, held nothing at all. _

_All around her, she could hear whispers and whimpers, as they stares at the kids who will fight, and kill each other. It was then, that from the corner of her eyes she spotted __**'Them', **__the people that responsible for all of this. __**'They'**__ stood in the highest place of the arena, where they hid nothing of their stature._

_One of __**'Them'**__ raises their hand, and yelled out; _

"_Begin!"_

_All five combatants' charges toward the sixth one, all of them knowing he is the most dangerous of them all. _

_And they're not wrong._

_It was swift and fast, the five of them doesn't even have a chance. The first to go down was the staff user, who receives a counter uppercut when he failed to land a hit, and the sixth combatant grab his staff, and begins to take down the other four._

_It was a one sided battle._

_When all of them hit the floor, the sixth combatant drops his weapon to the floor with a loud 'clank', and his gaze lies upon his downed enemy._

_A laughter echoes through the stadium, and one of __**'Them' **__quickly let out a command that scars through our heart._

"_Kill them all."_

_The sixth combatant didn't respond, his body shaken in disagreement of the command. None of the audience dares to voice something, as a wrong word might end their life here and there._

"… _If you don't kill them, I will kill five people in the audience."_

_Murmurs broke out and fears spreads across the audience. She holds her companion slightly harder, her red eyes stares at the child on the arena, with slight hope that he will finished them off. After all, finishing knocked out people aren't that hard, all he has to do was-_

_The young kid looks up, and all of her trains of thought shatter to millions of pieces. _

_His face, it was of pure horror and agony, as if doing this alone is a torture so hurt that he cant take it. Tears streams down from his eyes, his face begging for someone to just end it all. _

_It was a mortifying face, and it breaks everything she's thinking right then and there._

***Crunch***

Akame's crimson eyes snaps open as she snaps her gaze toward the sound of footsteps, her sword ready to cut down anything that she deems hostile.

"Calm down, it's only me."

Akame calm herself when she realize who it was, her short boyish style silver hair, the metals hands and her black suits can't be mistaken for someone else.

"Welcome back, Boss."

Najenda smiles at one of her best assassin as she waves her hand in greeting, her eyes then moves toward the large roasted bird above the large fire that Akame must've built. "Evil bird huh? Nice catch." She then walks to the other side of Akame and sat down.

Akame didn't really care where her boss sat at, all she cares right now is the roasted food that seems to be done by now. Without wasting another seconds, she quickly pluck some meat from her meal.

"Did you dream of something, Akame?"

Najenda's question caught her off guard as she paused munching on her meat, "… Just the past." She answered simply and she continues her activity.

Najenda let out a hum as she continues to stares at the fire. She knew herself that Akame past aren't something one might say 'pretty' or anything, in fact it's pretty brutal, being raised as an assassins.

Akame herself was in her own train of thoughts while munching on her dinner. Why now, of all time she dreamt of him? Why him, the boy that held such an agonizing expression it wrecked her heart?

"Yoo! Akame!"

Snapping herself out of her train of thought, she moves her gaze toward the familiar tone of a certain busty blond of her group, walking toward him with their 'potential' recruit walking in tow.

She didn't know what to think of this 'Tatsumi'. His sword skill isn't really bad, but it's not enough to take down people with her skill level. But he isn't a bad choice, and they really need more numbers among them.

But one thing she know, she won't share her food with him if he won't join them.

**XXX**

"Thank you! Come again!"

The satisfy customer waves his hand in thanks as he exit the restaurant. Now, this is what Naruto would call a dream job, making the heavenly food of ramen and serving them to fellow ramen lover, and getting paid for it, as well!

Life couldn't be better.

It's been two days since Naruto had taken on Chouji's job, and Shikamaru still looks for information about their target. He would just prefer going at it as quickly as possible, but his friend always insist of doing some digging first, and the fact information could make his life easier can't be change.

Naruto train of thought was cut short when Hans, with a couple of Imperial Guards he never seen before, walks inside the place. From the exhausted looks on their face they must've done a double shift or something.

Teuchi, who walked out of the kitchen, spotted the group, "Yo Hans, why do you look like you haven't slept for a week?"

Hans sighs and he and his co-workers sat down, "Well, when you had been ordered to do a triple shift since last night you'll have faces like me." He put his head on the table, "Can you give us some seafood ramen? And some sake? Please?"

When Teuchi didn't hear any complaint from Hans companions about the order, he order Naruto to prepared them while he goes to the back to fetch the sake.

"Hey Hans, why would they order you to do a triple shift? I mean, you didn't do anything weird, did you?" It was Naruto this time.

Hans raised his head to look at the blond chef, "You haven't heard?"

"Heard what?"

"Our Imperial Guard Captain, Ogre was killed last night by the Night Raid."

Naruto paused in shocked at that, but he manages to calm himself and continue on his work. He's not really a news person, so he doesn't update himself on the news about what had happened these days.

"Maan, the higher ups was pissed when it happened. They ordered us to do Triple Shift, TRIPLE FUCKING SHIFT! Those guys are heartless to us little people…." Hans moans his fate.

"But at least you got a promotion, Hans." One of his companion said, "Look at us! We didn't get anything!"

Now that gained Naruto's attention. "You got a promotion?"

Hans sighs, "Yeah, I'm a Lieutenant now, so show some respect brat, cause this mighty Hans finally stand in the upper echelon!" He proclaimed while somehow manage to get some of his energy out.

"They probably picked you since there's lack of manpower in the Guards." It was Teuchi, who had returned from the back carrying a tray of sake.

"Oi Teuchi! Why do you shut down your old friend like that!"

Naruto smiles faintly while pouring the ramen to their bowls. The news of Hans finally standing up among the higher ups is quite the good news. Although the man is an annoying bastard, he actually cares for the people, especially the people in the poor district. That means that there will be at least several more guards around the district to keep the people safe from muggers and the likes.

Though he has nothing to worry about even if there's like a division stationed in the district, Crimson Fox won't be capture that easily, especially by pesky guards.

Naruto train of thought was broken when Shikamaru enters the premise and sat down, he nods his head at the blond, and Naruto smiles turns into a grin.

Looks like he'll have a show time tonight.

**XXX**

Crimson Fox, in all his glory stood above the rooftop of a building in the Red Light District, his cold blue eyes stares toward a large building with the sigh 'Gato Corp.' hanging above the entrance, with guards hanging all around.

"_Alright, for this operation we're working together with Chouji and Kiba. The perimeter of the target is well guarded by guards, though they're just some mercenaries, they're pretty well equipped."_

The thief then quickly silent run through the roof, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, his steps is almost silent, despite him running on a noisy roof.

"_The place is too well guarded to confront head on, even on the night. That's why a distraction is needed, and Kiba seems keen enough to provide you with one. Those mercenaries may be numerous, but a mindset already plants itself on their heads that 'Nobody is sane enough to try to steal from Gato', so when the distraction is happening you will strike quickly."_

Naruro came to a stop at the nearest rooftop of the building, his eyes scans around the guarded area. True to Shikamaru words, breaching through here without ample distraction would be annoying.

Then his gaze moves toward the sky, where the crescent moon is showing itself accompanied by the stars all around it. Then, as if being signaled he had arrived, a fire work blows itself on the sky, sparkling it with its red colors

Then more and more fireworks blow itself on the sky, it was all peaceful until some of the fireworks came down toward the building ground and blows themelf near the guards, and that's Naruto cue to moves.

When the guards are all panicking and pissed off at the random fireworks that blew up near them, Naruto slipped off by using the shadows of the night, his silence steps made him like he was a passing wind.

"Huh?"

"What's wrong, Kirk?"

"No… just thought I see something moves back there…"

"Seriously? You must've imagining thing or something. Nobody is crazy enough to steal from Gato."

"…. I guess…"

"_Once you've passed through the guards, there won't be much else obstacle at the back. Just pick the lock, and get in. Though be careful, once you're in you're on your own."_

After making sure no one was here, the blond took out his pick lock and begins to pick the iron door, which is a simple thing to do as the door unlocked itself with a 'Clink'.

Nodding to himself, Naruto steps inside the dark building. It's a good thing he's adapted at moving through the dark, or else he might hit the wall or accidentally hit the alarm or something.

"_Now, the main office is in the third floor, more specifically the top floor of the place. You're lucky it's not a ten floor building or something, seems that Gato doesn't like height too much or something. "_

Manuvering himself in the building proves to be quite the easy task, though he had to avoid some of the patrolling guards inside the building. Fortunately, he brought his lucky armament to counter this sort of guards.

The baddass movable box!

Yes ladies and gentleman, one of Naruto most pride armament to counter patrolling guards is a box, or as Naruto had called it, Baddass-Box!

So, the blond quickly uses the box as a cover and sneakily walks through the patrolling guards as they thought it was just some kind of random box.

Those idiots guards, really.

After reaching the stairs, the blond removed his cover and proceed to climb to the third floor, which is not that high at all. Searching for Gato's office is quite easy as well, seeing as it was in the middle of the hallway, with the sign 'Gato's Office' hanging on the door.

Using his trusty lockpick once again, Naruto easily unlocked the door with ease. Entering the room, Naruto came face to face with a fancy office that corrupted business man usually has in every stories, complet with his own fireplace, animal rugs and animals head hanging on the wall.

Yup, cliché villain alright.

Finding the secret safe that Gato contained is even easier, seeing as a large painting of a tall Gato hanging behind his desk, it didn't take a genius to guess that the safe is behind that.

Removing the safe, Naruto came face to face with a small steel safe, quite common thing rich people have.

"Hoe… It's quite the newest model he had here… Not bad. But unfortunately…" Naruto took out his trusty pick lock, the thing that always accompanies him no matter where he goes. "I've learned the way of opening this thing." With an evil laugh, Naruto begins to pick the safe.

It took him quite a while before the satisfying sound of 'clink' was heard. "Man, it's more complicated than I thought… Welp, here's the booty." With a smile, he opens the safe and begins ransacking it.

"Let's see… Oh! Gold! And Jewelry! This Gato guy has a pretty nice taste… Aha! Papers!"

Taking out his objective, Naruto begins to scanned it, just in case it's not some brother bill or something that Gato tries to hide. The last time he brought that kind of thing to Shikamaru instead of his target, he gets an earful from the pineapple head. Taking out a stick, the thief smack the bottom of it to the wall and the stick started to glow bright. He should thank that mad scientist sometime, her invention always helps him, and maybe he could give her and her husband some ramen or something.

"Hm… Drugs… Ah, here it is. Yup, it's about that new drug alright. Chouji's right, bastard like Gato really like his receipt-Hm? What's this?" His eyes scans through the paper, as his expression turns to sour, "… Slaves delivery? Tomorrow Night from here? That means…"

Naruto let out a 'tch' as he think about his situation. For one thing, his mission already a success, with him holding the requested item in his person, on the other hand, Gato probably held a bunch of slaves in this building to be shipped tomorrow night.

Now, if he tries to… 'Steal' the slaves from Gato, it'll be risky as hell, but if he succeeded in doing so, the outcome would be…

"_Remember Naruto, once you get those papers, get out quickly. Don't get sidetrack by anything."_

Naruto groans at his heroi-Uh, greedy tendency of stealing people properties. With another 'tch' and pray to his ancestor that Shikamaru wouldn't kill him after all of this is over, Naruto begins his next emergency mission against Gato.

Steal one of his most precious investment, his slaves shipment.

**XXX**

In a dark lid room, a shadowy figure is seen sitting down on couch, his large muscular body marks him as a male and one could see a large blade leaning against his shadowy figure.

This figure slowly opens his closed eyes when he senses someone entering the dark room.

"… What is it, Haku?"

Another figure, this time a feminine one, slowly emerges from the dark corner of the room.

"We have an intruder, Zabuza-sama." The feminine figures said with a melodious voice, perfectly accompanying the figure. "I've sense him wandering closer into the basement; he's hiding his present… Quite impressive."

"Is that so?" The large male stood up, cracking his neck, "It's been ages since anyone stupid enough to infiltrate this shitty place." He grabs into his large sword and shoulders it with ease, "Well, let's greet that brave bastard, shall we? That damn midget Gato did pay us to guard those shipments." And if Haku commend this intruder of hiding his present, he must be decent enough fight.

"Hai, Zabuza-sama."

**XXX**

Just like the law of all villain to put their office at the top floor, most of them also abide to the rule of putting their numerous and valuable illegal cargo in the basement of their office.

It's just common sense though.

After exploring the first floor of the building, the blond managed to find the staircase to the basement, guarded by three well-armed guards.

That's pissed off drunk.

So Naruto, being the baddass smart genius he is, he once again used his most effective device of all time.

The Baddass-Box!

"… Hey *Hic* Joe did that *hic* box just move past *hic* us?"

"*Hic* what box *hic*?"

"… Nevermind. *hic*"

"Shuudduupp both of *hic* ya… I'm trying tooo sleep hereee *hic*."

Yup, the best guards they are.

After walking past them and go down the stair, the blond take away his cover and came face to face with a large metal door, again. The blond just groan and complaint about businessman loving large metal door for some reason.

But of course, a large metal door is no match for Naruto lock picking skill.

After hearing the satisfying 'clank' of the door opening, the blond walks inside, not before closing the door, though., least he wants is some bastards accidentally spotting him coming here.

What greeted him was a large arena like room, with large space and almost nothing inside. However, despite it being dark and almost devoid of stuffs, he could just barely heard the sounds of humans whimpers and breathing.

Walking near toward the sounds, the blond came headfirst into a metal bar, causing quite a loud sound from the impact.

"Ouch…" While rubbing his forehead, the blond took out another glow stick and light it.

Naruto eyes twitch when he saw inside the cell. People, of all age and genders, all huddles up against the far wall with rags as their clothing's. Fear not hidden within their eyes as they stare at him with the same emotion.

Then from the corner of his eyes, he spotted a pile of something piling up in the corner, only now his nose smells the familiar and yet distasteful smell.

It's the smell of dead body.

Emotion starts to rise up within the blond, dark emotion that he prefer to kept forever within him.

**Kill**

The thief winced as he holds his head in sudden pain as memory of the past came back to him.

**Kill**

All that blood, all of that lifeless body…

**KILLKILLKILL**

His breathing becomes hazard as his headache become stronger.

**KILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILL**

"SHUT UP!" Naruto yelled out, startling everyone in the room. Only when the headache gone and he catch up he breath the blond realized he just screamed out toward nobody. When he shifted his blue eyes toward them, they flinch in complete fear of what the thief will do to them, even some of the children started to cry.

Damn it, this is one of the reasons why he doesn't really like his scary crimson fox mask, it tend to scared children and some adults. But on the other hand, it's cool as hell and it fits him perfectly.

"I am Crimson Fox," Naruto introduced himself to the slaves, and when most of them perks up he realize most of them do knew him. Well it can't be help, considering he's the most bad ass freaking overlor-Uhm, Thief, yes. "From now on, you are all my stolen goods. So if you want to get out of this shit hole, do as I say and don't say anything, alright?"

Most of the nodded their heads in fear.

"Good, now-"

When Naruto heard a whizzing sound from his side, it was his reflexes that saves him. His body instantly ducked down, just in time to see a large sword whizzing past where his head was and stuck itself to the far wall.

"Hoo… So you dodged it."

Naruto snapped his head toward the source, finding a large muscular man with grey cameo pants and bandages covering his mouth. Oddly enough, he doesn't wear a shirt. Beside him stood a girlish figure wearing a green haori with white trimmings and around his waist a brown sash with a fringed trail wrapped around his waist twice.

The blonds eyes widened. "Y-you…"

"Hoo… So you know of me, thief?" The man asks with hints of smugness in his voice.

"You have no eyebrow!" Naruto plainly pointed out while pointing at his enemy in a surprised voice.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"… I'm going to enjoy killing you, bastard!" The eyebrow less man proclaimed.

"This is the first time, in my entire life, being threatened by an eyebrow less man." Naruto said with amazement at himself for some reason. "You experienced something new every day."

Lots of tick marks appears on Zabuza head, "You little… Fine then, you little shit! Zabuza Momochi, Demon of the Mist shall kill you!"

"Demon of the mist has no eyebrow? Man, what a letdown." The thief said with a sighs.

"YOU!"

In all of Haku's life, this is the first time seeing Zabuza, who can keep cool of himself most of the time, this fired up.

**To be continued**

**Well guys, here's chapter two. I know I'm evil ending it here, but I really want to put this chapter, and I'm just that evil. **

**Now, expect more updates from me in the near future, I don't which one I will update…**

**Anyway, review please! This time I hope I can respond to it.**


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